Nick: The Child Soilder
by LilmanToBigboy
Summary: When a six year old boy gets kidnapped, what do you expect to happen. Becoming a co-leader of a child group, then joining the Russian military is not what you expected to happen. What did you expected? He was raised in war to raise a little hell. Completely normal thing for a child to grow up as.
1. Chapter 1

As the morning sun rises to greet the foggy Texas day, there is a small boy getting ready to go to school. He is six years' old, 4'5 feet, and is getting dressed for school. His name is Nick Pasterneck. He is a fifth grader for Providence Elementary school. He puts on his little race car imaged shoes and look's in the mirror. He has short brown hair, blue eyes, little athletic build,

angular cheeks, and a little scar that goes from his left eyebrow to the top of his eye. He glanced at the scar and looked back as he got that wound.

 _ **Flashback: First P.O.V**_

I was that four days, and my family and I were going through a tunnel. My father, Frank Pasterneck, was driving our 1994 blue Lincoln Town Car. My mother, Jessica Pasterneck, was in the passenger seat reading a book for the travel. It was a famous car in the 1990's and most of their friends had that car. I was in the back seat looking out the window at the sides of the tunnel. We had a few more minutes until we reached the other side. As I was looking at the sides, I heard my father said something.

"I wonder how the dog is" dad said

"Oh, I'm sure he fine" mom said

I was confused at this since we didn't have a dog. I looked at my father with a confused expression with my head tilted to the side. I noticed that both my father and mother had a faint smile. I knew something was up, but didn't know what it was.

"What dog?" I said

"Oh" my father said amusedly, "Just that we knew how mu…AGHH"

My mother hit him on the shoulder to shut him up. She had a little angry look on her face. She looked up from her book and whispered in his ear. After a few seconds of that she released it and looked in the rear view mirror.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Just return to whatever you were doing, you'll figure it out once we get there." She said sweetly.

"Yea sport, nothing to worry about." Dad said as he nursed his ear.

I looked between the two of them, going back and forward looking at mom and dad. I wanted to say something when….

 _ **CRASH….**_


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up in the hospital a couple of months later. As I was awakening, I heard voices telling me to come back to them. My vision was blurry, but I could make out shapes and color's pretty well. I saw white and spot of black and white in my field of vision. I heard many voices. Most of the a little happy but I also heard my father voice. My voice raspy as I spoke.

"Water, please"

I heard many people running around me and my father came running up to me handing me water. I slowly let the water in my mouth and sighed in content that my throat was feeling better and the rest I could not remember.

 **END FLASHBACK**

I remember when I woke up again, I heard that my mother died in the crash. I cried into my father shoulder as he hugged me as well him crying again. Apparently as soon as we left the tunnel, there was a driver that ran the light and hit us in the side of the vehicle. I was in a coma for four months until I woke up. After I got released from the hospital after rehabilitation, my father and I went to get the thing we were getting before the crash. It turned out to be a puppy, and I always wanted to get a puppy. He was a pure blooded German Shepard that got named Spike. After a while, my father met a girl, and they were hitting it off. I liked her, so my opinion was of good faith.

As I walked out my door, Spike greeted me outside. He was official mine after getting him from the breeder. He looked up a when I started petted him and greeted me by licking my hand. I giggled because it tickled my hand, and im a little ticklish. I stopped petting him, and went inside the bathroom across the hallway. Spike followed me and sat outside when I started brushing my teeth. I didn't need to shower this morning as I already took one right before I went to bed. I stopped brushing my teeth when I heard knocking at the door.

"Son" said a familiar voice

"Yes dad" I said a little gurgle because of the toothbrush in my mouth. I cupped my hand to get water in my mouth to slash around.

"You ready" he said tiredly

"Give me a few minutes" I replied as I spitted out the water to clean up

"Alright, but I want to hurry before the morning traffic starts off." he said before leaving to the car.

I walked out the bathroom a few second later to see Spike still sitting there. I smiled at him and said goodbye. He laid back down as I walked out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

I walked out the door making sure I locked it. Turing and walking down the steps. As I reached the bottom of the steps I started heading towards the drive way. We lived in an urban environment so we lived pretty close to my school. After getting home from the hospital, I went straight to catching up in my class. I went to a failing student, to a straight A's student by the time the year was over. That was also the day I joined the school football team as a running back.

Getting into the passenger of the truck that dad bought after our car was totaled. It was a 1999 red ford pick-up truck, with tinted windows, and silver trimming's. The interior of the truck was with black. Black dashboards, seat's, and roofing cover.

I closed the door and buckled up. My father was already in the driver seat already ready to leave. He backed out the driveway and started to drive me to my school. The school wasn't far, but it wasn't walking distance either. I could go on the bus, however an accident happened and I was kicked off the bus. The only thing though, is that I didn't cause the accident. It was the kid behind me that framed me, and I was mad. We got in an argument when the bus stopped at a light, but it only escaladed to yelling. The bus driver broke up the fight and we got scolded, however I was the only one that got punished. I got told a few days later that I wasn't allowed on the bus.

Apparently, the kid that was messing with me, told a different story and said I hit him. I wasn't even messing with him, and he had the gull to tell that story. I wasn't allowed to even given the chance to tell my half of the story. I told my father my half of the story, and he went to the principle of my school. However, when he got there and told the truth, the principle told us that without proof of my half of the story, he couldn't do anything. We left a few minutes later.

I stopped my train of thought when the car stopped. I looked out the window and noticed that I was at my school.

"Well, I pick you up later then son" my father said to me with a smile.

I looked at him with a big smile. "Yes, please do" I said while opening the door. I looked at him one last time and walked to the school entrance. I waved goodbye and walked in.


	4. Chapter 4

(Layout of the school will be model after Janitell Jr. High school in Colorado Spring's)

I walked into the into the school and notice that the hallway was empty. Not surprisingly, it's just that im usually pretty early. I went into the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. As I dropped my bag next to the door as required, I went across the hall to the serving room. The lunch ladies and I know each other, and with that, I get a little extra food.

As I got my food and sat down, I saw one of my best friends come into the cafeteria. His name Conner Williams, and he is one of my best friends before the coma. He is also a fifth grader and he is 5'5, spiky brown hair, Harry Potter style glasses, green eyes, and a rounded noes. He has average grades, meaning that he's not failing or have straight A's. . He plays football for the school. His position is the quarterback, while im just the running back. so he's the "Jock" of the school.

He saw me finishing my breakfast, and ran to get his breakfast. A few seconds later, he walked over to sit by my left side. Even if I finish my breakfast, were required to stay in the cafeteria.

"Hey, buddy" he said while having a piece of toast in his mouth, "how thing's?"

"Good, you?" I replied

"Awesome, we still up for the game in the afternoon?" He asked

"Sure am" I said excitedly. After our little conversation, we talked about other things like who got cuties **(1)** , or how our plans for the futures are. We talked until more of our friends arrived with other kid's. Ten minutes later, the cafeteria was full, but we were still talking. We stopped talking when it was time to go to class, so we said our goodbye's and me and Conner went to our first class of History.

We walked together until he reach's Mr. Byke room. He is the general history teacher of our school. He is a tall, white man with grey hair and a big beard. He is a funny teacher that makes bad uncles jokes that we just laugh at anyway. He also reminds everyone about Santa. We walked in, and took or seats.

As we are sitting in class waiting for it to begin, Conner and I were sitting next to each other. It didn't mean that we didn't have any friends in class, it just that we enjoy each other's presence. Anyway, other classmates are coming in and class is about to start. Mr. Byke came in after the last student was in and closed the door. He smiled at us and said good morning just in time as the morning announcement blared to life.

"Good mourning Gators **(2)** , please stand for the Pledge of allegiance and the Texas Pledge." We stood and put our right hand over our heart.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We recited. After saying the pledge, we put our palms facing up to recite the Texas Pledge.

"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." We put our hands down and stood in silence as the Moment of Silence was currently happening. A minute later, we sat back down and listen to the mourning announcement. After listening to the announcement, the teacher started to say the plan of the day.

"Hello student's, hoped you had a wonderful weekend. Now, we are going to go over and study for the next test we are having." Que moans and groans. "Now, now. We went over this, if you study for the test like we practiced you should pass it with flying colors." He said.

The class started moving around trying to find the materials to study with for the test. While me and Conner were sitting in the back, complicating on what to do. Our teacher knew we didn't need to study because I got straight A's while my friend just cheats off my paper when he has his back turned. He really never found out how my best friend got good grades when he mostly fails other assignment's.

When we got the go ahead to do whatever we wanted to do silently, we just messed with each other. Throwing thing's, playing rock-paper-scissors, and read books together. This went on until sixty minutes passes and our class time ran out. Me and Conner said our goodbye for now and went to out next class.

 **(1):** I don't know what kids talk about these day's since it's been a while since I was a child.

 **(2):** I know, the school mascot is a jaguar, not an alligator.


	5. Chapter 5

My next class was math class, and it was my favorite class. Our teacher, Ms. Hunter, is a nice teacher. She was in her late twenties and married to a nice man she sometimes brings in to tell us stories of adventures he went on as a service member. She is an African American, with a small black afro, and a small mole on the side of her left check. Also she is wearing a white dress with blue terming's on the edge's with a pair of flip flops. She greets us at the door and begin class.

I sat down to the right side of another one of my friends. Her name is Kelly, and I won't admit it but I may have a small crush on her. She is a Hispanic girl and is standing at a height of 4'2. She is wearing a black skirt with a pink top, and has a blue daisy behind her left ear. Along with a strand of her light brown hair pulled back behind the ear with the daisy, with the other covering her right eye. Leaving her left bright blue eye to be shown. She is a shy character, but I heard from my best friend, that it's only around me. Strange. Anyway, the teacher gets in front of the class after closing the door behind the last kid to start second period.

"Good mourning class," getting a good mourning in return, she continued, "I hope you all have your homework you completed to turn in."

"Yes ma'am" the class the replied.

"Good, then you can put it on the corner of your desk and I shall grab it when I walk along. Now today we are going to learn how to subtract today. Does anyone know what subtraction means?" **(1)**

Getting no response from the question, she started to explain the definition and how to subtract. We took notes about the subject and began working on problems. I heard a shy voice next to me and turned to Kelly that was poking were fingers together cutely.

"Um… d-d-do you have a pen-pen-pencil I could us-us-use?" she stuttered shyly while blushing. I find it cute.

"Sure do!" I exclaimed and handed her a pencil. Getting a thanks, I returned to do the class work. Noticing that Kelly kept glancing at me quickly and looking away. This kept on until class ended and we left after saying goodbye to Kelly.

After a few more class like Art, Science, English, and an awesome Russian speaking course. Which, of course, was optional and not a lot of people signed up for it. So basically, it was me and a few others. I think there seven of us and one teacher. I was an advance speaker of Russian, but never really used it in conversation outside of class. Anyway, it was lunch time, and since our teacher was awesome he let us go a few minutes ahead of time to skip the line.

It was nacho day, and a lot of kids love those nachos. So did I, so I was speed walking along with Conner to get lunch. Conner was in the class with me we just had so we pretty much messed around during class again. We were in the line be the time other students got out for lunch. I was getting my lunch behind Conner who beat me to the line.

The lunch ladies saw me, and gave me little extra food like every other day. We sat down at the table next to the stage and chowed down. The nachos were covered with creamy Velveeta cheese and seasoned taco meat. It was just the correct balance between crunchy and a little soggy, just the way I liked it.

During the time we were eating, I talked with Kelly and Conner about school work and what we're going to do after school. When were finished with our lunches, we went outside to play football. Well, me and Conner did. Kelly just sat on the sideline watching us play. I was the running back with Conner on the other team.

The team I was on sucked. I was the only good player, since I know how to play. However, even though we lost big time to Conner team, we still had fun. With Kelly cheering us on, we had even more fun. After playing football for a few, we decided it was enough and sat by Kelly. We talked more and just generally enjoyed each other company.

We were sitting under a cherry Tree with me and Conner between Kelly. Kelly was stationed in between us with her hands touching our hands and resting on my shoulder. I was also resting my head on hers and were peaceful. **(2)**

When the bell rung for us to go home, we got up and said goodbye. When we're going to get our things, I got a phone call from my dad.

 **Ring…. Ring….Ring**

"Yes dad" I said walking to my cubie.

"Hey son, im going to be late to pick you up today" He said apologetically, "Im going to be a few minutes late." He concluded.

"Oh… ok. I'll wait here for you then." I said while grabbing my backpack.

"I'll meet you in the front of the school then. See you in a few." He said. A few seconds later he hung up.

I was not surprised at this. He sometimes didn't pick me up from school right then and there. If that happened, I would just sit outside waiting from him. So here I am, alone, sitting on a bench next to the front door of the school, waiting for my father. There was a teacher out with me, but had to go inside for a few minuets. While I was doing my homework I got from my teachers that assigned it. Just then, a black van pulled up.

 **SCENE CHANGE FEW MINUTES EARLIER**

In a black van in front of the school, there were two masked men. They were currently looking at Nick. They looked up at each other and nodded at each other. They turned on the van and drove in front of Nick. They have found their prey.

 **BACK TO NICK: SAME TIME**

I looked up and saw a black van pull up. Then all of a sudden, two men rushed out and were running towards me. I tried to run, but I wasn't fast enough. They tackled me too the ground and I tried to scream out but they covered my mouth. I tried to escape, but I felt pain in my neck. The last thing I noticed was the cloth over my mouth lifted and them picking me up. I was placed in the back of the van and them driving off. My vision blurred and I heard them talking to each other about something. I couldn't hear them well as my hearing as well was blurry. A few second later I blacked out, not knowing the future ahead of me.

 **DRIVE TO THE AIRPORT: 3** **rd** **PERSON**

"Man, that kid put up a fight." He said to his partner, who was making his way to the passenger seat. He was rubbing the side of his cheek as Nick punched him good.

"Ahhhh, is someone being a bitch. Man the hell up" He with his deep voice.

"Yea your right, so what do you want to talk about partner?"

…..."Our role in the universe?"

"Eh, why not."

 **(1):** I have no idea what they are teaching in elementary school seeing as it's been a while

 **(2):** Link in bio if you want to see the picture


	6. Chapter 6

**TIME SKIP 5 HOURS LATER**

"Breaking news, a six-year-old boy has been kidnapped around 3:30 PM, this afternoon. Nick Pasterneck has been kidnapped for about five hours as of now. The last know location of the six-year-old was in front of his school, Providence Elementary. He was waiting for his father to pick him when he called in late. When suddenly a black van pulled up and two men got out and knocked him out. Police say they do have video evidence, and release that information, however, they are not telling us anymore information as it is an ongoing search. Going to Bob at the scene of the kidnaping. How it going Bob?"

"It is a sad day for the community, as Nick Pasterneck, the six-year-old kid, was kidnaped in front of the school. I have spoken to the father, and he said he was late to pick up his son from school. I also spoken to the chief of police, and he said they are working with the FBI with searching for the boy. They are looking the black van, and any other evidence to help with the search. This is Bob Hunter, coming from the scene."

"Thank you Bob for the information. The police and the FBI are asking for help with the search and rescue of the boy. If you have any information to help with the case, please call the number on the screen to report. This is Cynthia Cisneros of KTRK news, signing off. "

 **TIME SKIP: 11 YEAR'S**

 **Location: MOUNTAINS OF UKRAINE**

The year is 2010. Fighting in the mountains of Ukraine are almost a daily occurrence, ever since the news of Ukraine wanting to join NATO an EU. A few separatist groups have banned together forming an ultranationalist party trying to put a stop to this. Inciting low intensity conflicts all over Eastern Europe. It was at this time that a small group of teenage solders made a name for themselves.

These child soldiers were aided by the Russian Government, by them sending weapons, vehicles, training, and ammunition. In return, these teenage soldiers help with keep the separatist out form gaining that valuable position. This area that they were in was one of four areas heavily targeted by the ultranationalists.

The teenage solders were fighting to protect was a small village located deep in those mountains with a little population over a little of a thousand residents, mostly younger children. Some of the older girl's would be the mother hen's towards the littler children and keep them educated, and safe. The town in the mountains, as well as the mountain forest itself, was heavily fortified with trenches, bunkers, little outposts, and underground tunnels.

While the older boys, mostly the age of 14 and 17, would go out and fight. Most of the time they would return, some injured. However, some would lose one or two members of the group, our not return at all. The towns folk were grateful for the protection and offer to help with food and taking care of the children when they have time. The only reason why the folk of the town don't leave is because of under threat of death by the ultranationalists.

Fighting in those mountains made those teenagers into hardstone killers. Willing to lay down their lives if necessary for village and comrade. They were also made into vary skilled interrogators. Even doing the interrogations on the battlefields to get information to help them overcome the attacking enemy, or when attacking. The child solders name was the Dire Wolves, in memory of a skilled pack of hunters and killers that lived in North America before their extinction.

Reporters would come far and wide to report them. Looking into their brotherhood, casted in the flames of war, and tampered in the tears of their fallen. Most of their identities were hidden when they came to report. Wearing over the head, black balaclava. They would also be wearing black steel-toed combat boots, black combat uniforms with an emblem of a wolf tied around their right forearm. Those uniforms would indicate the Dire Wolves were there, and ready to mess up your day.

 **(EMBLEM SYMBOL OF THE WOLF: DESTINY 2) (1)**

 **NICK: FIRST PERSON**

I was running in between trees, as gun fire erupted from our left, right, and front. Me and my squad was on a patrol north of the village. It was during the night and was pouring rain when we were ambushed. Six out of twenty-five of our members died when the gun fire erupted.

"Take cover, take cover" a comrade said next to me.

"Their flanking to our rear from out right. Concentrate your fire." another comrade said a few trees to the right. "Aghhh.." he grunted in pain when he got shot in the arm.

"Get the damn medic over here!" the person pulling him behind a large rock thirty meters to my left said.

"Cover fire for the medic" I commanded. A few seconds later, we unleashed a borage of bullets into the trees, taking out a few unrespecting enemies. "Call for backup" I said calmly to the radio man next to me. He nodded to me, and started calling for back up. A minute later, he returns his attention back towards me.

"Sir, backup thirty minutes away. Their redirecting a tank to our position. from HQ" He stated.

"Alright comrade's, you hear that. So start digging in until reinforcements arrive to tear them a new ass-hole. URA"

"URA" my comrades in arms replied. We dug into defense position and hold onto losing grounds. I was crouched next to a tree that fell down after getting hit by an RPG. The radio man next to me with a pistol in hand seeing as his main weapon is out of ammunition. A few minuets later, a scream rang out in the forest.

"RPG!" a comrade of mine screamed before getting hit by it, exploding into chunks. I lowered my head for a seconds before looking over the tree and shot the guy that killed my comrade, hitting him in the chest. Then ducking behind it for cover to dodge incoming fire. This went on until I heard a familiar rumbling noise and music from behind. I chuckled when I heard _Sabaton,_ a popular band favored amongst us.

 **RUSSIAN DIALOGE WILL BE IN RUSSIAN FROM NOW ON**

 **FEW MINUTES AGO**

 **LOCATION:HQ**

At HQ, there was a reporter from America interviewing a group of towns folk. They were talking about the fighting that was almost an common occurrence for them. This went on until the reporter saw movement. A group of teen soldieries were running towards a forested painted camo T-90 tank in a hanger supplied by the Russians. He then said goodbye to the towns folk and ran towards the children on the tank.

"Эй, что происходит?" _(Hey, what's going on?)_ he said in Russian.

"Отряд попал в засаду," _(A squad got ambushed,)_ he replied. "собирались помочь." _(were going to help.)_ he said while getting strapped in.

"Могу ли я прийти?" _(Can I come?)_ the reporter questioned. The boys stopped and looked at each other, then looked at the tank commander. He closed his eyes and sighed. A few seconds later, he then reopened his eyes and looked in the reporter's eyes

"Хватай жилет и спеши." _(Grab a bullet proof vest and hurry)_ He said while sitting down in the tank. The reporter ran toward the armory, and returned with the vest, helmet on, and a camera rolling.

He got in the tank and with a little help got situated in a seat out of the way. They closed the hatch and proceeded to the gate. The gate guards saw them and opened the gate to let them through. The tank drove through, while a gunner in the tank turned to the radio connected to a stereo system and proceeded to turn on _Sabaton Primo Victoria._ The reporter looked at the guy, and he shrugged while taking his place by the 125 mm ammo for the tank.

The drive was mostly slightly except for the music blaring through the radio. The reporter recorded in a notebook a the drive and a solider taking a cigarette and lighting it. The reporter wasn't shocked; he saw multiple teen soldiers smoke. Along with gambling, drinking, fighting each other, and the occasional moments were pure stupidity over took them.

"Были здесь." _(Were here)_ the driver said, and taking one last drag of smoke before putting it out. The solders inside were moving ammo into the tank and loading it. The reporter pulled out the camera, and started to record.

 **(1):** Link in Bio

 **(2):** Russian ain't my language, so excuse the mistakes if you do speak the language.


	7. Chapter 7

**FIRST PERSON: NICK**

The tank stopped a thitry meters behind us and started to unleash hell up through the trees. 125mm shells going into the trees and 12.7 mm machine gun bullets tore through both trees and flesh. The enemy combatants decided to run because they used all their rockets on my men and I before our reinforcements arrived. After the fighting subsided, and the last bullet fires, I saw an enemy running away. I raised my gun and shot his leg. My men quickly turning towards where I fired. They moved up and secured the enemy I shot. I gave the three guys to my left a nod, and they grabbed the guy and went farther into the forest. Screams quickly followed.

The tank opened its hatch opened and the commander stepped out. He looked around and whistled at the state the forest was and our looks. Sweat, mud, a lot blood, and the casualties we took. I lost around six out of fourteen of my men. Two dead, while the rest are wounded. Two would need a check up, and possible recover time, while the other two would need surgery in the next hour and a half or the chances of death rises. He saw me and walked towards me after jumping from the top of the tank. The soldiers secured the surrounding area and captured wounded enemy combatants that got left behind. Those that could walk we spared while those that cant get the bullet.

 _"_ Я слышала, что тебе нужна помощь, и приехала так быстро, как только смогла _"(I heard you needed help, and I came as fast as I could) h_ e said.

 _"_ Эй, Иван, спасибо, что пришли. Спас меня несколько моих людей и время. Приходите помочь с очистит, а что с репортером? _"(Hey Ivan, thanks for coming. Saved me a few of my men and time coming. Come help with clean up, and what is with the reporter?)_ I questioned while sitting my AK-105 down next to me.

"У тебя есть босс." _(You got it boss)_ He responded. "О репортеру. Он хотел прийти, и я позволила ему прокатиться с нами." _(Oh the reporter. He wanted to come along, so I let him ride with us.)_ while pointing to the reporter on the tank getting help down by the gunner. I nodded and laughed along with the commander when he slipped into the mud. I shocked my head while still chuckling, and took out a cigarette along with the commander. I light mine and the commander's cigarette as well. Taking a drag of the cancer stick I stopped laughing and looked at the commander.

"Тебе нужно прокатиться?" _(You need a ride?)_ he questioned, and I nodded and said thanks. While loading up and picking up our fallen comrades, the reporter asked if he could snap a photograph and an interview. I said sure, but the interview would have to wait seeing as we are still in a combat zone. We gathered around the tank, and took position with the prisoners kneeling at our feet. I was sitting on the tank with the cigarette in my mouth through the mask and my AK-105 strapped on my chest. He took the picture and we continued with loading up. Just then, a shot rang through the forest silencing the screaming. The three men I sent into the forest came out a little more bloody then they went in. They will report what they learned to me later when we arrive back to the village. While the rest of the prisoner's will be walking while being escorted in front of the tank with their hands up on their heads. I sat next to the barrel of the tank while the drive back to base. The reporter was asking me questions and other people of my squad at the time. When we got back to base, the prisoners were moved to the cells, and I off to my bed.

 **DREAM SCENE**

 **RUSSIAN WILL BE IN ENGLISH**

 **"** Just save your voice. Extract will be here in a few minuets." a dead voice sounded out through the woods. The small figure said to the smaller silent child within his arms. She was laying on the ground being held close to the boy slowing drifting off. She laid on the floor looking at the figure above her.

"Can... I ask you a question?" her voice said out, cutting through the silencing the figure above her. He slowly nodded. "What...was I to you"

 **DREAM END**

A knock to my door jerked me awake after a forty minute sleep period. I got up and walked to the door. I changed over eleven years I've been here. I'm a staggering 6'5 with a six pack showing to the outside world. I lost my baby fat for a more muscular form. Not too big, but more of a swimmers build. My blue eyes have lost its shine, my innocents, behind them. The brown hair of me has been cut to more of a military high and tight style. My body riddled with scars, from the occasional bullet or knife. Also on my arm's, two full sleeves of tattoo's that a villager did over the years. The left sleeve was full of crosses. Every cross is represented with the initials of the fallen comrade that have died under my command. The left was full of skulls, each one representing the number of people I have slaughtered. I made a note to add three skulls in the future, with an additional two crosses. Depending if the other two make it through the 'surgery'. Even with the laws regarding Russian aid, they still sent a doctor and equipment to do major surgeries and to teach a few of my men or women to be his aids.

Walking over to the door of my Spartan style room. I cracked my door to see a ten-year-old boy in uniform standing at attention.

"What do you want" I said tiredly shirtless and in my boxers.

"Sorry boss, but Alisa want's you in here office. Like, Yesterday." He saluted before returning to his post. I sighed and closed my door. A few seconds later, I walked out in full uniform fiddling with my mask tucking it in my shirt. In my shirt, there were my dog tags next to my cross. I walked out the barracks to Alisa's office. I walked in and knocked at her door waiting to be allowed in. I heard an enter, and I walked in.

"You wanted to see me sis." I said. Alisa was a small girl. Barely 4'9 and 17 year's old and a motherly type to a three year old child. Said child was in the corner of the room playing with his toys. She was in uniform, but instead of the mask, she wore a black scarf. She has blond hair, in a low pony tail, and bright green eyes. She, another person, and I were co-leaders to this little group of child solder's in this mountain village. She however, was the main leader. Scary when necessary, but caring to those she protects and leads.

"Yes, I did. The talks about joining the EU and the UN are on it's way but will take a few years to go through. Though this is not what I wanted to talk to you about. Russia is asking us, the Dire Wolves, about joining their military. Hidden of course because that will violate multiple U.N, E.U, and some Geneva Convention laws. So it will be an unofficial branch up until Vanko turns seventeen." She said while getting a bottle of water. Vanko was the youngest of the group at the age of seven, however, was limited to what he can do because he was seven. For now, he was a messenger until he is ten where he will be put in a guard post position near the wall around the village.

"That's good. Russia will benefit from joining them. We will talk to Russia when Osip returns from his mission in a couple of months. Thou I think that I'll leave it as is, and call it a night seeing as you interrupted my sleep." I said.

"Sorry for that." She apologies.

"It's fine."

"Well, that was all I wanted to talk about, so go get a good night sleep. In fact I'm done today so I'll join your idea of getting some sleep. Come along son, lets go home." Alisa said, walking around from her desk with her hand extended for her son. I followed them out and said goodbye to them. I walked back towards the barracks in the middle of the night, so the occasional patrol was all there was outside with me. Half way to my room, I started to take off my shirt. Opening the door, I stepped in and shut the door. The dark room greeted me like the sleep is greeting me now. I stripped to my boxers, and passed out as soon as my body hit the bed.


	8. Chapter 8

p id="docs-internal-guid-e3f3826c-7fff-37e6-8764-5d4323944d97" dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"TIME SKIP: 2 YEARS, 11 MONTHS/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"RUSSIAN WILL BE IN ENGLISH/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"LOCATION: 50 MILES FROM THE VILLAGE, DEEP IN THE FOREST/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"P.O.V'S: NICK'S/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sounds of the rotating blades of the MI-8 transport chopper deefens all noise near the clearing it landed in except for the occasional thunder. A group of 15 children decked in hiking gear and rug sacks surrounded me as I gave the briefing to these young hopefuls. These children were on their last run of becoming the guardians of the village 50 miles away. Their mission to become one was to hike back all the way to said village in a day and a half through deep forests crawling with animal life. Nick gathers their attention to give more information about their track through the forest./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""One last bit of information that I will remind you with." he yelled over the chopper, " If you don't reach the village in the allotted time period given, and somehow get lost in the forest, return to this field if you can. I will return to come pick you up and take you back. Now, this area has been deemed low to nonexistent in the threat assessment for the enemy. If you do come across an enemy patrol. DO! NOT! ENGAGE! Hide if you can. If not possible, use the M9 you all have been supplied with. There will be some instructors in these forests to guide you the right way. However, they will not help you in either medical, food, water, or any other essential. You are in a forest, let it help you" I finish. After asking if anyone had questions, and getting a negative, I sent them off. They get maybe fifty feet before I spin around and yell at them to get their attention one last time. " I almost forgot, don't die. We don't want to recover a body in the middle of the forest because it's a bitch to recover. If you do die, then die in a clearing. Good luck" I said before getting in the MI-8 chopper and closed the door. A few seconds later, the chopper shaked as it lifted off and headed off towards the village. I turn from the door, and look at Alisa who is looking out the tinted window at the children disappearing through the forest. A few seconds later she turned her head to me as I sat across from her../span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br /spanspan style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What are the chances of them dying?" she asks./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""From what? Enemy combatants? Wildlife? Sheer stupidity?" I ask for clearance, while fidgeting with my thigh holster for my M1911 pistol as it tighten around uncomfortably./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""From anything."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, for those that will travel in groups have a slight advantage in numbers. Those lone wolves among them will have more trouble than those in the group. The terrain was surveyed a couple days ago. It's relatively safe except for a massive ravaine that is easily noticeable if they pay attention. However, wildlife is a problem. These lands are crawling with venomous snakes, spiders, and a large number of wolves, bears, and such. So they will be at risk from that. So chances of a death happening will maybe be 38% for those traveling in a group and 46% for those lone wolves. But taking in consideration those surprise elements, such as enemy combatants, round them up to the nearest tenth. However, the chances of them running into such circumstances are low." I explained./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, that is true, but you can't stop me from worrying about little Vanko."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Don't worry about little Vanko. I taught him well and he took it like a fish to water. Hell, I taught most of them the basics. So stop worrying about them. If they do die, oh well. They should have been more careful in these woods, and for those that do pass, they will be split up. All the lone wolves would be taken with me to be the more elite of the graduates. Most likely they will become new recon assault specialists. While the others would be in the main force protecting the wall for a little while. After a year or two, they will be taken into the field for a lite combat situation and if possible for their first kill. Better get them their kill in a control environment then out there in the real deal." I said, re-explaining it to her the future for the graduates that make the cut. I know that at least one of them will die, and two won't make it back in the allotted time given. However, I didn't voice those statistics to her, not wanting her to become more worrisome. She accepted my reasoning and stood next to me near the cockpit. The chopper was rented for this purpose for two days by the Russian government along with the pilots that are currently flying the bird./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After a few minutes of standing there, the pilots told us that the village was coming into view. We said thanks, and moved near the side door of the chopper. We waited for maybe two minutes while the chopper landed in a makeshift helipad in the center of the village. Dust filled the air as the blades kicked it up. A few seconds later, I slid the door open and hopped out. I extended my hand to Alisa who accepted it. The blades of the chopper slowly came to a halt while we walked towards the center of town. While walking, we took in the damage done to the village not too long ago. While I was out scouting a possible enemy stronghold, the enemy led an attack on the northern wall around the village. With their mortars, they damaged the buildings while land forces pushed the breached wall. While enemy forces didn't get very far into the village, the damage they did cause was still great. Multiple houses were deemed unlivable due to the building's structure being compromised. For right now, the survivors would have to be double or triple down on the living conditions. However, all we could do was clear the debris until the upcoming winter passes. Seeing the result of the attack, the Russians gave us more BMP 1's and 2's, a couple T-90's, and even some TOS-1A's for long range artillery. They even included two C-RAM's in the package. However, this was offset for a time for the training some of our soldiers had to be trained for the equipment, lowering our defence and offence for a time. The training should be finished within the week as expected. The two C-RAM's however, were already in place which were placed on top of a large grey building that acted as a makeshift HQ and barracks./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What would you be doing until the kids return?" Alisa said, snapping my attention back to her. I hummed for a second and looked at her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What else, I'm going to pay my respects." I said it like it was obvious. She sighed before looking at me with sadness in her eyes./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's that time of the year again isn't it?" she asked, getting her response from my nod. She sighed again./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"" It's been years, Nick. The chances of y..." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I /spanspan style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"won't /spanspan style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"give up yet," I said, cutting her sentence off, "Not until the rest are dead by my hand."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know. However, what are the chances of you finding a lead after years of the trail going cold?" She asked. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'll stop when it's over." I said, before leaving towards a little patch of forest outside the village gates. I walked out of the village, and into the woods./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Entering the tree line, I started to follow a barely visible path. Bushes, trees, and tall grass outlining the path is the only guide leading to my destination. Every step I take along the path surfaces memories that I wish would not haunt me anymore./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'It'll be an easy mission.'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Memories all formed over days that forced me to shut some emotions off./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'We only have an hour and a half left on this patrol, let's breeze through this town real quick.'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My orders lead into a bloodbath./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'Petro, isn't this area under the control of the enemy.'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My orders lead into an ambush./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'It's too quiet.'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My orders lead to death./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'GET DOWN!'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"More and more memories keep surfacing the closer I get to the clearing that is coming into view in the distance. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'We need to get the hell out of this town'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Memories that I spent months repressing coming anew like clockwork every time this day comes around./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'We're surrounded. What are we going to do?'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"One by one, our patrol led to their deaths./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'Why won't they stop?'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Leading to a question that I still can't answer./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'What...was I to you?'/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The crunching of leaves under my heavy, black boots brought my troubled mind to my surroundings and to the now darkening sky. A giant clear area devoid of all except for grass on the floor and the tree overhang allowing for rays of the dying sunlight to pass through. In the middle of the clearing lay a couple large rocks that just gave enough cover for a firefight with a small patch of grass in the middle of the rocks. Getting closer to the rocks, one could see little blotches of a dark substance, but to me, I saw the pools of blood that were drained from my comrades. The tears they shed as they realized that day was their last. However through their tears, sheer determination laid underneath to make the ultranationalist knew they weren't going to go down without a fight. That fight lasted for three days, three days of utter hell of us running through the middle of the night and bullets to scavenge for ammunition for us./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Passing the rocks that had an uncountable amount of gun shot dents, cracks, and holes towards the center of the rock formation. Reaching the center, I sat on the grass with a rock pressed against my back. Pulling my pistol from its holster, I stared at it getting lost in the repressed memories bubbling to the forefront of my thoughts. The passing of time slipped my mind, and it only came back as the rustling of leaves and bushes drew my attention. Quickly snapping my arm to the noise, I quickly lowered it seeing as I just scared the shit out of the reporter who returned just a couple months back. I motioned for him to come over, and he walked towards me after collecting himself for almost being shot. I returned my pistol to its rightful place on my thigh and looked at the reporter. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The reporter could be considered handsome in the female eyes. Dirty blond locks spiked in certain areas, with a chiseled jaw and chin. Light blue eyes that could memorize any female if they look into them too long. He's well built, seeing as he sometimes runs with us on missions and training drills, and stands around my height, give or take a few inches. He mirrored my position just opposite of me, and while I was staring at him, he took in his surroundings. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled a small notebook he almost always carries and started to write away. I waited a few minutes for him to finish writing before asking him some questions./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What are you doing here reporter, and how did you find this place?" I inquired, getting his attention snapped towards me./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Um… I followed you to see where you are going. After you sat down, I was waiting for you to come out. However, seeing as you were still sitting, I decided to come out and join you." He responded, getting a humming noise from me. I stared at him for a few more seconds before I gave my response./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I can see that you have questions. Ask carefully, for I might get ...unpleasant as to how you treat this area." I told him while a glare shot from my eyes, resulting in a gulp from him even when he can't see my eyes. I ended my glare, seeing as the point got through. The reporter racked his brain around the question he wanted to ask for a period of time before speaking his thoughts./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Are you ok?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A deadpan look came upon my face along with an eyebrow raised. I kept this look up for a second before I responded./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That is probably the worst thing you could ask someone who clearly isn't. However, seeing as this is the first and last time you are seeing this place, and have no idea what transpired here years ago, I will forgive that question and allow you to ask another instead."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ummmm… right. My bad. Sorry for asking." He apologized, and I motioned him to carry on with his line of questions. He cleared his throat before asking another./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know that you're a straightforward kind of guy, so I'll just ask a few questions. Starting off with, what happened here?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A moment of silence passed between the two of us with the gentle breeze accompanying us. I leaned my head against the rock. A flashback to the fighting here has me looking through a small hole through the trees in the middle of the night. As fast as it came, the memory ended and my return to the present. The small hole that once was was now covered by the tree's growth still allowed a little sight to the night stars. Without looking at him, I answered his question./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That is a difficult question to answer. To state what happened here requires you to know what happened a few miles north in the now emptied town." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright, I'll restate my question. What happened a few miles north of here, and what do you mean by the 'now emptied town'?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Now that are easy questions I can answer. A simple patrol happened," I said. Taking off my shades, and turning my head to look at the reporter. I reached to the top of my head, and did something he never saw me do. I took off my balaclava to show my face. This resulted in a shocked look from him as I never showed my face outside of my room. Looking straight into his eyes with a small smile, I said, "and for the reason why the town is emptied is because I killed everyone in it after the patrol."/span/p 


End file.
